The terms A-side and B-side refer to the two sides of 78, 45, and 33 1/3 rpm phonograph records, or cassettes, whether singles, extended plays (EPs), or long-playing (LP) records. The A-side usually featured the recording that the artist, record producer, or the record company intended to receive the initial promotional effort and then receive radio airplay, hopefully, to become a "hit" record. The B-side (or "flip-side") is a secondary recording that has a history of its own: some artists released B-sides that were considered as strong as the A-side and became hits in their own right. Others took the opposite approach: producer Phil Spector was in the habit of filling B-sides with on-the-spot instrumentals that no one would confuse with the A-side. With this practice, Spector was assured that airplay was focused on the side he wanted to be the hit side.

Music recordings have moved away from records onto other formats such as CDs and digital downloads, which do not have "sides", but the terms are still used to describe the type of content, with B-side sometimes standing for "bonus" track.[1]

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The first sound recordings at the end of the 19th century were made on cylinder records, which had a single round surface capable of holding approximately two minutes of sound. Early shellac disc records records only had recordings on one side of the disc, with a similar capacity (both media could hold between three and four minutes by 1910). Double-sided recordings, with one song on each side, were introduced in Europe by Columbia Records in 1908 and by the late 1910s they had become the norm in both Europe and the United States; the ability to effectively double the amount of sound on the disc was one major factor in its rising to dominance over the obsolete cylinder in the 1910s.

There were no record charts until the 1930s, and radio stations (by and large) did not play recorded music until the 1950s (when top 40 radio overtook full-service network radio). In this time, A-sides and B-sides existed, but neither side was considered more important; the "side" did not convey anything about the content of the record.

In 1948, Columbia Records introduced the 7, 10 and 12 inch 33 1/3 rpm long-playing (LP)vinyl record for commercial sales, and its rival RCA-Victor, in cooperation of the Radio Corporation of America, responded the next year with the seven-inch 45 rpm vinyl record, which would come to replace the 78 as the home of the single. The term "single" came into popular use with the advent of vinyl records in the early 1950s. At first, most record labels would randomly assign which song would be an A-side and which would be a B-side. (All records have specific identifiers for each side in addition to the catalog number for the record itself; the "A" side would typically be assigned a sequentially lower number.) Under this random system, many artists had so-called "double-sided hits", where both songs on a record made one of the national sales charts (in Billboard, Cashbox, or other magazines), or would be featured on jukeboxes in public places.

As time wore on, however, the convention for assigning songs to sides of the record changed. By the early sixties, the song on the A-side was the song that the record company wanted radio stations to play, as 45 records (or '45s') dominated the market in terms of cash sales. It was not until 1968, for instance, that the total production of albums on a unit basis finally surpassed that of singles in the United Kingdom.[2] In the late 1960s stereo versions of pop and rock songs began to regularly appear on 45s. The majority of the 45s were played on AM radio stations, which were not equipped for stereo broadcast at the time, so stereo was not a priority. However, the FM rock stations did not like to play monaural content, so the record companies adopted a protocol for DJ versions with the mono version of the song on one side, and stereo version of the same song on the other.

By the early 1970s, double-sided hits had become rare. Album sales had increased, and B-sides had become the side of the record where non-album, non-radio-friendly, instrumental versions or simply inferior recordings were placed. In order to further ensure that radio stations played the side that the record companies had chosen, it was common for the promotional copies (DJ version) of a single to have the "plug side" on both sides of the disc.

With the advent of cassette and compact disc singles in the late 1980s, the A-side/B-side differentiation became much less meaningful. At first, cassette singles would often have one song on each side of the cassette, matching the arrangement of vinyl records, but eventually, cassette maxi-singles, containing more than two songs, became more popular. With the decline of cassette singles in the 1990s, the A-side/B-side dichotomy became virtually extinct, as the remaining dominant medium, the compact disc, lacked an equivalent physical distinction. However, the term "B-side" is still used to refer to the "bonus" tracks or "coupling" tracks on a CD single.

With the advent of downloading music via the Internet, sales of CD singles and other physical media have declined, and the term "B-side" is now less commonly used. Songs that were not part of an artist's collection of albums are made available through the same downloadable catalogs as tracks from their albums, and are usually referred to as "unreleased", "bonus", "non-album", "rare", "outtakes" or "exclusive" tracks, the latter in the case of a song being available solely from a certain provider of music.

B-side songs may be released on the same record as a single to provide extra "value for money". There are several types of material commonly released in this way, including a different version (e.g., instrumental, a cappella, live, acoustic, remixed version or in another language), or, in a concept record, a song that does not fit into the story line.[citation needed]

Additionally, it was common in the 1960s and 1970s for longer songs, especially by soul, funk, and R&B acts, to be broken into two parts for single release. Examples of this include Ray Charles's "What'd I Say", the Isley Brothers' "Shout", and a number of records by James Brown, including "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag" and "Say It Loud - I'm Black and I'm Proud". Typically, "part one" would be the chart hit, while "part two" would be a continuation of the same performance. A notable example of a non-R&B hit with two parts was the single release of Don McLean's "American Pie". With the advent of the 12in single in the late 1970s, the part one/part two method of recording was largely abandoned. Modern day examples are Fall Out Boy's EP, My Heart Will Always Be The B-Side To My Tongue, or My Chemical Romance's The Black Parade, The B-Sides

Since both sides of a single received equal royalties, some composers deliberately arranged for their songs to be used as the B-sides of singles by popular artists. This became known as the "flipside racket".[citation needed] Similarly, it has also been alleged that owners of pirate radio stations operating off the British coast in the 1960s would buy the publishing rights to the B-sides of records they expected to be hits, and then plug the A-sides in the hope of driving up sales and increasing their share of the royalties.[citation needed]

The song "How Soon Is Now?" by the Smiths started out as the extra track on the 12-inch of William, It Was Really Nothing but later gained a separate release as an A-side in its own right, as did Oasis's "Acquiesce", which originally appeared as a B-side to "Some Might Say" in 1995, but gained subsequent release in 2006 as part of an EP to promote their forthcoming compilation album, Stop the Clocks. Feeder in 2001 and 2005 had the B-sides "Just a Day" from "Seven Days in the Sun", and "Shatter" from "Tumble and Fall" released as A-sides after fan petitions and official website and fansite message board hype, and both charted at No. 12 and No. 11 in the UK. In 1986, the first single from XTC's record Skylarking, "Grass", was eclipsed in the United States by its B-side, "Dear God" – so much so that the record was almost immediately re-released with one song ("Mermaid Smiled") removed and "Dear God" put in its place, becoming one of the band's better-known hits.

On some reissued singles the A- and B-sides are by completely different artists, or two songs from different albums that would not normally have been released together. These were sometimes made for the jukebox, as one record with two popular songs on it would make more money, or to promote an artist to the fans of another. For example, in 1981 Kraftwerk released their new single "Computer Love" coupled with the B-side "The Model", from their 1978 LPThe Man-Machine. With synthpop increasingly dominating the UK charts, the single was re-released with the sides reversed. In early 1982 "The Model" reached number one.

A double A-sided single is often confused with a single where both sides, the A and the B, became hits. Although many artists in the late 1950s and early 1960s like Elvis Presley, the Everly Brothers, Fats Domino, Ricky Nelson, the Beach Boys, Brenda Lee, and Pat Boone, routinely had hit singles where both sides of the 45 received airplay, these were not double A-sides. The charts below tally the instances for artist's singles where both sides were hits, not where both sides were designated an A-side upon manufacture and release. For instance "Hound Dog," the B-side of "Don't Be Cruel" by Elvis Presley, became as big a hit as its A-side even though "Hound Dog" was indeed not an A-side when released in 1956. Reissues later in the 1960s (and after the Beatles' "Day Tripper"/"We Can Work It Out") listed the single with both songs as the A-side. Also, for Cliff Richard's 1962 "The Next Time"/"Bachelor Boy", both sides were marketed as songs with chart potential, albeit with "Bachelor Boy" pressed as the B-side.

Queen released their first double-A single, "Killer Queen"/"Flick of the Wrist", in 1974. "Killer Queen" became a hit, while "Flick of the Wrist" was all but ignored for lack of promotion. Three years later, they released "We Are the Champions" with "We Will Rock You" as a B-side. Both sides of the single received much radio airplay (often one after the other), which led to them sometimes being referred to as a double A-side. In 1978 they released "Fat Bottomed Girls"/"Bicycle Race" as a double A-side; that time both sides of the single became hits.

On vinyl, double A-sided singles had one song on either side of the record, while double B-sides contained two songs on the same side (on the B-side, making three songs in all). When such singles were introduced in the 1970s, the popular term for them was "maxi single", though this term is now used more ambiguously for a variety of formats. These would not quite qualify as EPs – as that is generally four songs on a 45.

Genesis's 1978 7-inch single "Many Too Many" featured two B-sides, "The Day the Light Went Out" and "Vancouver", both of them being outtakes from the ...And Then There Were Three... album. There was no 12-inch equivalent. The band released two 7in singles with three tracks apiece, Spot the Pigeon and 3X3 (aka "Paperlate"), which were explicitly marked as EPs. "Spot the Pigeon" was also available in a 12-inch version, and also subverted this format a bit, by having two tracks on the A-side and one track on the B-side. The B-side, "Inside and Out", was also considered the selling point of the EP, being Steve Hackett's last contribution to the band, and remains a favorite of many fans.

Paul McCartney's 1980 single "Coming Up" had a studio version of the song on the A-side, while the B-side contained two songs, a live version of "Coming Up" and a studio instrumental called "Lunchbox/Odd Sox".

Iron Maiden's 1980 7-inch single "Sanctuary" was a rerecording of a song that had been given to the Metal For Muthas compilation the previous year. The recording was made during the Iron Maiden sessions but was left off the UK album and then put out as a single. To make up for this for fans who had specifically bought Metal for Muthas for the track, the "Sanctuary" single had two live B-sides which were deliberately selected to be non-album tracks. "Drifter" and "I've Got The Fire" (Montrose cover). A studio recording of "Drifter" (with Adrian Smith instead of Dennis Stratton) would appear on their next album Killers, and a studio version of "I've Got The Fire" with Bruce Dickinson appeared on the B-side of "Flight of Icarus" a few years later. At the time this single was released they were the first live Iron Maiden tracks released (though more would follow), and it remains the only officially released recording of "I've Got The Fire" with Paul Di'Anno on vocals.

The singles from U2's album The Joshua Tree were released with two B-side songs each, which were pressed at 33​1⁄3 rpm. Versions for jukeboxes included only one of those songs, which played at 45.

The B-52's UK 7-inch single of "Love Shack" was released with live versions of "Planet Claire" and "Rock Lobster" on the B-side, the B-side playing at 33 1/3rpm. The follow-up "Roam" followed suit, including live versions of "Whammy Kiss" and "Dance This Mess Around" on the B-side playing at 33 1/3rpm.

Parody band Bad News recorded a video B-side to the VHS version of their single "Bohemian Rhapsody" titled "Every Mistake Imaginable" in which the band discusses that they have to record an extra three minutes of footage for the single to be chart eligible.

Tracey Ullman's hit "They Don't Know" was backed in the UK by a song entitled "The B Side" and featured Ullman in a variety of comic monologues, many of which bemoaned the uselessness of B-sides. (The US release used the album's title track, "You Broke My Heart in 17 Places", as the B-side.)

Paul and Linda McCartney's B-side to Linda McCartney's "Seaside Woman" (released under the alias Suzy and the Red Stripes) was a song called "B-Side to Seaside".

The single "O.K.?" based on the TV series Rock Follies of '77 contained a song called "B-Side?" which featured Charlotte Cornwell tunelessly singing about the fact that she is not considered good enough to sing an A-side.

The B-side of the single "They're Coming to Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa!" by Napoleon XIV was called "!aaaH-aH, yawA eM ekaT oT gnimoC er'yehT" and the singer billed as "Noelopan VIX". It was the A-side played in reverse; in fact, most of the label affixed to that B-side was a mirror image of the front label (as opposed to being spelled backwards), including the letters in the "WB" shield logo.

Blotto's 1981 single "When the Second Feature Starts" features "The B-Side", a song about how bad B-sides are compared to A-sides.

Love and Rockets' novelty side project the Bubblemen released only one single in 1988, "The Bubblemen Are Coming" coupled with "The B-Side", which is a field recording of bees.

The Wall of Voodoo 1982 12-inch EP Two Songs by Wall of Voodoo has the 10-minute joke track "There's Nothing on This Side" on the B-side.

Metric released in 2008 a single entitled "Help, I'm Alive", with a B-side "Help, I'm a B-Side".

Three Dog Night's 1973 single "Shambala" featured "Our 'B' Side", about the group wishing it could be trusted to write their own songs for single release. It is the only Three Dog Night single written and produced by the whole group, and features family members on background vocals.

Dickie Goodman's 1974 release "Energy Crisis '74" featured "The Mistake" as the B-side, which was simply a false start of the A-side, with Goodman saying, "Hello, we're...", followed by two minutes of silence. (It was literally a mistake: the intended B-side was an instrumental called "Ruthie's Theme".[9] However, when Goodman realized the factory had stamped a number of the botched pressings, he simply placed the full version of "Energy Crisis '74" on the other side, and released the records anyway.)

The B-side of B.A. Robertson's 1979 single "Goosebumps" is entitled "The B-Side" and contains lyrics from the song's point of view. The lyrics describe the song as being "the back of a hit" and "real popular after the war" which can be said to relate to the dominance of the 45 RPM single after this time and the change of significance of the A-side and the B-side after this time. This track also opens side two of Robertson's album Initial Success.

One of the B-sides from Lenny Kravitz's single "Heaven Help" is called "B Side Blues" and documents the sheer boredom of him being under a lot of pressure from his record company to write more successful material.

^It was typical of Goodman's records to feature throwaway tunes on the reverse, often with different names. In fact, "Ruthie's Theme" is the same tune as "Problems", which appears on the B-side of the Goodman-produced "Super Fly Meets Shaft" by John and Ernest.